Access Control as a Service (ACaaS) offers more revenue and market opportunities that traditional access control does not. That is according to a recent study published by IMS Research (now part of IHS Inc), titled The North American and European Markets for Access Control as a Service (ACaaS).
Blake Kozak, report author and senior analyst at IMS Research, says: “ACaaS presents more of a plug and play type installation and has opened up the market to the wider installer community including locksmiths that have traditionally not installed access control hardware/ software solutions. Other opportunities for ACaaS also exist with smaller end-users, eg. those with less than 50 doors to manage and within large organisations that cover a wide geography such as utilities that own several hundred substations.”
Facility managers offer a opportunity for suppliers of ACaaS. In large office buildings, the report suggests. The market reserach firm argues that it’s typical to see facility managers deploying access control equipment at the building entrance and within each office. Rather than having each office maintain a server or having the facility manager administer a server for each tenant, by using ACaaS the manager could pay a fee to have the system managed/ hosted removing the need to maintain that system. Using ACaaS, each tenant maintains their own solution and works with the dealer or provider when updates are required. For the facility manager, security concerns can be passed to a third party and the extra fees charged for ACaaS can be added to the monthly rent.
In summary, the market researchers suggest that ACaaS could be the answer for suppliers looking to increase market penetration. Small, independent, family-owned businesses are now a real opportunity. The residential sector also cannot be ignored having seen a recent influx of home automation and smart home technologies. The researchers point also to wireless electromechanical locks gaining in popularity, that can be connected wirelessly to home automation systems or other smart home applications.
